Monday, July 13, 2015

Iraq snapshot

Monday, July 13, 2015. Chaos and violence continue, a new UN report notes that the violence against civilians in Iraq is being carried out by terrorists and by the Iraqi forces, Donald Trump offers a silly and idiotic proposal and that causes outrage -- that causes outrage, Haider al-Abadi again tries to retake Anbar Province, and much more.

Let's start with some reality.

Donald Trump wants to be the Republican Party's presidential nominee.

Whether that will happen or not remains to be seen.

But all the bottom feeders are out attacking him.

(I know Donald. I do not like Donald.)

David Letterman came out of his retirement to attack Trump.

Jon Stewart's made his final days on Comedy Central all about Trump.

One of the things Donald Trump is being ridiculed for is declaring that the US should bomb Iraq's oil fields.

Now I'm not for bombing anything.

But the gasping and the clutching of the pearls over the remark, the proposal?

If you think you look educated or humane, think again.

The Iraqi military has shelled Falluja General Hospital.

Not once or twice.

And we're not talking about the 2004 siege of Falluja.

We're talking about in the last twelve months.

It's taken place mulitple times.

All of you hypocrites -- and, sadly, that is what you are -- who are hollering about how ridiculous Donald Trump is for calling for the bombing of Iraq's oil fields?

He's making a strange argument, but it's just words at this point.

If you really gave a damn about Iraq, you would have been screaming your head off when the Iraqi military was bombing Falluja General in the last 12 months.

Iraqi
government forces battling armed groups in the western province of Anbar
since January 2014 have repeatedly struck Fallujah General Hospital
with mortar shells and other munitions, Human Rights Watch said today.
The recurring strikes on the main hospital, including with direct fire
weapons, strongly suggest that Iraqi forces have targeted it, which
would constitute a serious violation of the laws of war.

Since early May, government forces have also dropped barrel bombs on
residential neighborhoods of Fallujah and surrounding areas, part of an
intensified campaign against armed opposition groups, including the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham (ISIS). These indiscriminate attacks
have caused civilian casualties and forced thousands of residents to
flee.

“The government has been firing wildly into Fallujah’s residential
neighborhoods for more than four months, and ramped up its attacks in
May,” said Fred Abrahams,
special adviser at Human Rights Watch. “This reckless disregard for
civilians is deadly for people caught between government forces and
opposition groups.”

According
to
applicable
rules
of
international
humanitarian
law,
civilian
infrastructure
and
property
is
protected
from
attack
unless
and
only
for
such
time
as
it
is
used
by
a
party
to
the
conflict
for
military
objectives
.
UNAMI/OHCHR
has
nonetheless
continued
to
receive
reports
of
Government-associated
forces
apparently
deliberately
destroying
civilian
infrastructure
or
failing
to
take
adequate
precautions
in
the
planning
and
execution
of
their
operations.
Incident
reports
have
increased
in
tandem
with
the
reclaiming
of
territory
from
ISIL
control

At least 73 people have been killed in the the western Iraqi cities
of Ramadi and Fallujah, as the Iraqi government stepped up air strikes
and artillery fire against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
(ISIL) armed group, sources told Al Jazeera. An air strike on a sports field in Ramadi shortly after midnight on
Sunday killed at least 50 people and left more than 30 people injured.
At least 23 people were killed and around 40 wounded after shelling
north of Fallujah.

Meanwhile the Iraqi military continues its year and a half long bombing of civilians and civilian homes in Falluja. Amre Sarhan (Iraqi News) reports a medical source told them that Saturday "Fallujah General Hospital received
the bodies of 25 people, including three children and four women, and
23 wounded, including five women and six children, as victims after
their homes were subjected to mortar fire in different areas of
Fallujah." In addition, Iraqi Spring MC reports that the Iraqi military bombed civilian areas of Ramadi today.

You may think Donald Trump's idea is crazy (I do).

But it's an idea.

It's not been implemented.

For 16 months, the civilians of Falluja have been under attack. The attacks have been carried out by the Iraqi military.

This isn't an idea floated by Donald Trump, it's actual War Crimes.

And apparently it doesn't matter.

To those who want to whine about Donald Trump's proposal while ignoring War Crimes?

How are you any better than Bully Boy Bush and others who focused on the oil in Iraq while ignoring the people?

This is not the first time the Iraqi government has announced an
operation to retake Anbar — where several key towns, including the
provincial capital Ramadi, remain under IS control. In May, authorities
announced an operation to retake Ramadi, but there has not been any
major progress on the ground since then.

Dominic Evans (Reuters) explains, "The sprawling Sunni Muslim province extends
hundreds of kilometers west of Baghdad. Many of the towns and cities
that line the banks of the Euphrates, snaking down from the Syrian
border, are Islamic State strongholds.Islamic State's capture of Ramadi
two months ago marked the biggest defeat for the Baghdad government
since the militants swept through the north of the country last June and
declared a caliphate in parts of Syria and Iraq straddling the border."

AP has also noted that the announcement was made on Iraqi TV by Yahya Rasool who is the spokesperson for the Joint Operations Command but that he failed to "clarify whether the U.S.-led international
coalition is taking part, mentioning only government forces and allied
Shiite and Sunni paramilitary troops." Failed to clarify or failed to credit?

We are hearing the province will be surrounded on three sides going
up to the border with Syria. They have announced operations like this
one in the past particularly in Ramadi when it was taken by ISIL forces
in mid-May. And that's a battle that's still ongoing. It is likely that this operation will concentrate on the second city
in Anbar province, Fallujah, and move further west. While this is going
on, we have also heard coalition airstrikes have hit an ISIL media and
radio station in Anbar province.

Iraqi officials have been candid that the brunt of the fighting about to
engulf the city will be borne by an umbrella group of Shiite militia
groups formed under the supervision of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard
Corps, the elite of Shiite Iran. That’s raised dire concerns from
American advisers that these sectarian groups – overtly hostile to both
Americans and Sunni Muslims – will break the already deeply frayed relationship between the Shiite government in Baghdad and the Sunni tribes that dominate the large swaths of Iraq currently under the Islamic State’s control.

The government claims that Sunni tribal fighters and local policemen
from Anbar will join the militia-led assault. But many remain skeptical
that Sunnis have joined in sufficient numbers to avoid the impression of
a Shiite pogrom against Sunnis in Fallujah.

At the US State Dept press briefing today, spokesperson John Kirby spun wildly.

QUESTION: Slightly Iran-related. In relation to Fallujah,
wondering if the United States detects any evidence of Iranian
involvement or direction of Shiite militia trying to take back Fallujah?MR KIRBY: I would point you to the Iraqi Government – this is
an Iraqi-led operation – to speak to the participation of these Popular
Mobilization Forces and certainly Tehran for the degree that they are or
are not facilitating. I do think it’s important to remember a couple of
things. This is an Iraqi-led operation, as it should be. And so we’re
going to let them speak to the progress of it. And then on the Popular
Mobilization Forces, and I mentioned this a week or so ago but I think
it bears repeating: About 80 percent of these Popular Mobilization
Forces, or Shia militia as they are otherwise known, are not at all
connected to Tehran or the Iranian regime. They’re Iraqi citizens proud
of their country and wanting to chip in and fight. And what we’ve said
from the very beginning is that all the forces arrayed on the ground
against ISIL in Iraq need to be under the command and control of the
Iraqi Government. And that’s what we’ve seen with the vast majority of
these Shia militiamen.

So I think it’s just important to keep a little context in here. When
we talk about Shia militia fighting here or fighting there, there’s
this automatic sort of connection drawn to Tehran, and that’s just not
the case mathematically.

The ongoing conflict in Iraq continues to exact a “terrible” and
deadly toll on the country’s civilians, particularly in the areas still
under control by the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant
(ISIL), according to a new report released today by the United Nations.
The report – a joint effort compiled by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI)
– notes that the situation facing civilians in ISIL-controlled
territory remains dire with many of those perceived to be opposed to the
extremist group’s ideology being murdered, often in “grim public
spectacles.”
Members of ethnic and religious communities, for instance, continue to
be persecuted with as many as 3,500 members of the Yezidi community
remaining under ISIL captivity enduring physical and sexual violence.
Others, meanwhile, are apparently being persecuted based on their
perceived sexual orientation. On 8 March, the report says, ISIL beheaded
two individuals accused of homosexuality and a third for blasphemy in
the Bab al-Toob area of Mosul.[. . .]Although the report widely focuses on the crimes perpetrated by ISIL
extremists, it also documents violations committed by the Iraqi Security
Forces and affiliated forces, including indiscriminate airstrikes and
shelling as well as actions of reprisal against civilians.

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